I am sure you have all had a meal, whether in a restaurant, cooked by friends or by yourself and you've thought to yourself that there is something missing?Your next move probably would be to reach for the seasoning, one of which would be salt.
As you know, too much salt can be very bad for your health, contributing to high blood pressure among other things.
Hidden salt is found in other seasonings such as sauces and stock cubes too.
However, this article is not about your health necessarily but about your pleasure! The first dish I am going to talk about sounds very boring without any added flavours.
It is a Winter Vegetable Casserole and consists of the following vegetables -

• Parsnips - two to three
• Carrots - two large
• Butternut Squash - one medium
• Celeriac - one
• One large clove of garlic

Cut all the vegetables up into cubes, garlic finely chopped, place in a large baking tray and add a generous drizzling of olive oil to coat the chunks and some sea salt sparingly, approximately half a teaspoon.
Place in the middle of a medium hot oven and bake for approximately half an hour.
Meanwhile gather the magic ingredients! Go out to your culinary herb garden and gather a small handful of sage leaves, a sprig of rosemary and a sprig of thyme.
Chop the sage leaves and pull the little spiky leaves off of the thyme by running finger and thumb the opposite way to which the leaves grow down the twig.
Leave the rosemary as a sprig.
Place all your herbs in with the vegetables along with some more olive oil if you think it necessary and place back in the oven.
Cook until all the vegetables are tender.
If you want, you could add to this dish by cubing a pack of gruyere cheese or crumbling some goats cheese or even adding blue cheese such as Stilton, St Agur, Roquefort or whatever is your preference place into a smaller casserole dish and grate Parmesan on top.
Bake until golden.
Use your imagination!If served without the cheese it is still delicious just served with crusty bread or as part of a meal such as a roast joint or a beef casserole.
With the cheese, it makes an excellent vegetarian meal.
This is just one idea of how a culinary herb gardencan help to make a meal delicious - to summer roasted vegetables; add basil, tarragon and oregano.
To home-made bread, add sage and rosemary and thyme - the stronger, robust herbs.
To lamb add rosemary, a perfect match.
Beef and Bay leaves go hand in hand.
Lavender can be added sparingly to sweet dishes and cakes and the flowers make very pretty decoration.
Lavender has long been used to aid sleep and little pillows can be made to pop under your own pillow or near your head at night.
Both Lavender and Rosemary can be used in the same way but placed in with your clothing to give a delicious and delicate scent.
Herbs can also be preserved by drying, hanging in your kitchen or placed in olive oil,where you have the added benefit of flavoured oil as well as your herbs to use.
The possibilities are endless! Experiment and keep using your herbs!